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Grant Helps Missouri Community Trees

Published on: Mar. 21, 2008

Posted by mardim

With all the storms and damage to trees in the past two years, many Missouri towns and cities face unusually big challenges when it comes to keeping their trees alive and thriving. Help can be found in the Missouri Department of Conservation’s TRIM (Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance) cost-share grant. At the March 2008 Missouri Conservation Commission meeting, Forestry Program Supervisor Justine Gartner explained all that the TRIM grants can provide.

“The great thing about these grants,” Justine said, “is that they can help towns in lots of different ways—whether it’s doing a tree inventory, tree removal, tree pruning, education about trees or tree planting.” She noted that beyond the basic requirement that the trees are on public property, the grant requests are evaluated on several factors. These include whether the project is part of a total tree-management program; how well the project promotes, improves and develops a community’s trees; technical merit; value to the community and plan for making people aware of the project.

The Conservation Department can provide up to 60 percent of the cost of a project (from $1,000 to $10,000). With about $500,000 available, there is an opportunity for a good number of grant awards. The deadline for TRIM applications is June 1. So if you’d like to see the trees in public places where you live looking good for years to come, take Justine up on the offer and apply for a TRIM grant today.

Key Messages:

We work with you and for you to sustain healthy forests, fish and wildlife.

Tree-of-Heaven is a fast-growing exotic that has become common in urban areas. It is weedy and aggressive and should not be planted. Recognize it by its 2-foot-long feather-compound leaves and the unpleasant scent of the twigs when you break them.

Also called eastern hemlock, this tree is encountered only in landscaping in our state. But based on one instance in Oregon County, we know it can reproduce and spread here on its own. So if you find it on a hike, it was almost certainly planted there at some point. Look around for a cistern, old home foundation and other persisting garden plants nearby.

This native of China and Korea was cultivated in Missouri for years, often in urban landscaping. Because it readily escapes from cultivation and is invasive, it is no longer recommended for planting in Missouri.

Native to Europe and Asia, this tree is planted widely as an ornamental. In some parts of the United States and elsewhere in the world, this species becomes weedy, even invasive. In Missouri, you are most likely to encounter it in landscaped areas, and not in the wild.

Eight workshops scheduled around the state aim to help you develop the most successful Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) grant application possible. Some workshops require registration. Find the one nearest you.

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